Mutual [Horan]

[02] Dirty Socks

It only took Adeline about an hour of putting old people's dirty socks through the washing machine to get over the shock and excitement of Niall Horan being at Sommerset.

They'd exchanged very speedy introductions upon his arrival before Adeline suddenly remembered she was meant to be on laundry duty and left Pat to catch up with her grandson.

It wasn't like she was some crazy fan of the band or had any real prior knowledge of him other than he existed and was famous – but, regardless, she was totally chuffed. After all, it's not everyday a celebrity walks into your workplace. Thinking about this brought on several questions and she began to wonder things like if he got paid penalty rates for the concerts done on Sundays or how much money someone would have to pay to have him killed.

The laundry door opened softly and a girl, not much older than Adeline entered. "Oh, hey Laura," Adeline acknowledged her but without any real feeling.

"I'm meant to be on laundry duty, aren't I, gloomy guts?" Laura quizzed, confused as to Adeline's presence and general disposition.

Adeline sighed. "Lau," she started, "what's the minimum amount of cash you'd accept to be killed for? You know," she said, "like by a hitman?"

"What?!" Laura snapped, eyes wide and brows raised. "Why would I be getting cash if I'm the one being killed?"

"Nah, I mean like how much do you think would be–ugh. Forget it," Adeline admitted defeat, realising the stupidity of her question.

"Okay. Are you acting strange and hiding amongst the socks because you've heard of this hunky pop star walking our halls?" Laura raised an eyebrow and smirked, knowingly, arms folding across her chest in the stupid mother-like way they did.

Adeline was almost annoyed at Laura for being right. She looked at her colleague and chuckled nervously. "We met this morning."

"Ah-huh! I knew it! Ugh, trust you to be all over the hot singer! You hussy," Laura teased, playfully before Adeline shushed her.

"Look," Adeline said bluntly, turning away from Laura to open the lid of the machine. "When I tried to talk to him I froze. I could hardly get a sound out."

Adeline sheepishly looked from the tangled web of damp socks to her work friend whose mouth was agape with surprise. "You're kidding me!" Laura scoffed. "Big, tough-talking, 'you can look but you can't touch' Adeline is caught blushing for a guy who didn't even win X Factor?! This is too funny!"

"Hey! Shut up," Adeline fired back, also with humour. "I just wasn't expecting it. He caught me off guard... besides One Direction is huge now so don't you go making it sound like he's some idiot Justin Bieber wannabe with no talent."

"Some idiot Justin Bieber wannabe? No talent?" a voice repeated. "You wouldn't be talking about me would you?"

Laura and Adeline's focus immediately fell on the blonde tufts of hair poking through the gap in the door. Adeline felt her ears prickle and pulse speed up. She wanted to run again but this time she shook the feeling. "Matter of fact, we just may have been," she said, appearing confident while inside her head she was feeling anything but.

Niall cracked a grin at her light-hearted joke. "But, ya know... if I was your boyfriend you'd never be alone," he said, with a wink and his grin still present. Adeline stared for a moment. Then she remember to blink. And then she started constructing a 12 page questionnaire before reaching the conclusion Niall had said a Bieber lyric to her and not any form of relationship proposal, inclination, etc. and so forth so finally, she began to breath again.

"What if I needed to pee?" Adeline queried.

Grin faded. Niall was confused. "Huh?"

"What if I need to pee and you're my boyfriend? You'd have to come with if you're not leaving me alone."

"Oh," Niall admitted bluntly. "I imagine solo toilet trip rights could probably be evoked but how about we cross that bridge when we come to it, eh?" and with that, his grin was back with a vengeance.

Adeline couldn't stop her beaming smile any other way than nibbling her bottom lip. "Hey, I'm Laura!" Laura quickly outstretched her hand for Niall to take.

"Nice to meet ya, Laura. I'm Niall. I'm just visiting for a while," he told her politely.

"I actually have heard a fair bit about you already," Laura began, "–from your grandmammy, not Google or anything stalker-ish. So you should totally get Adeline all caught up on you and you can get caught up on her while I go make beds and then we can all have lunch together."

"Sounds good to me," Niall was quick to say.

Laura was soon gone, leaving a gaping hole of moral support that Adeline had not accounted for.

Niall sat himself up on the island counter and said, "So," pointedly at Adeline. "You're my nan's primary nurse, right?"

"Mmhm," she nodded, scared actual words would fail her.

"Is she okay? Like, really?" He said, sudden concern in his voice. Adeline looked at Niall. This boy was famous, sure. He had millions of fans, yeah. And when she looked at him now, he wasn't that boy. She saw a boy who was only worried about his grandmother. She noted a softness in him.

"Pat is definitely an elderly lady but considering her age and life experience, she's doing remarkably well," Adeline explained. "Her only real problem is sometimes difficulty in breathing. We've had her on an oxygen tank a few times before and that's generally always brought her back to top form."

He sighed out of relief. "Thank goodness," he seemed to say it to himself before realising Adeline's heavy gaze on him. "Sorry. It's just that with me being away I really don't know and if things weren't good – well, my parents just aren't the kind of people to bear bad news so they just wouldn't tell me if things weren't good with Nan –Pat."

"It's totally fine, Niall," Adeline insisted. Damn, this boy was soft. She felt a heat in her stomach that began to spread. "I promise if it all is going tits up, you'll know."

Niall's eyes lingered on the girl a little while before he opened his mouth again. "Thank you, Adeline," he said, "You're wonderful."